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Quantum gravity
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To Solve the Biggest Mystery in Physics, Join Two Kinds of Law
Reductionism breaks the world into elementary building blocks. Emergence finds the simple laws that arise out of complexity. These two complementary ways of viewing the universe come together in modern theories of quantum gravity.
Joe Polchinski’s Restless Pursuit of Quantum Gravity
The pot-stirring string theorist and quantum gravity theorist never sits still for long.
Where Gravity Is Weak and Naked Singularities Are Verboten
Recent calculations tie together two conjectures about gravity, potentially revealing new truths about its elusive quantum nature.
Physicists Uncover Geometric ‘Theory Space’
A decades-old method called the “bootstrap” is enabling new discoveries about the geometry underlying all quantum theories.
Quantum Gravity’s Time Problem
The effort to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity means reconciling totally different notions of time.
What Sonic Black Holes Say About Real Ones
Can a fluid analogue of a black hole point physicists toward the theory of quantum gravity, or is it a red herring?
Physicists Hunt for the Big Bang’s Triangles
The story of the universe’s birth — and evidence for string theory — could be found in triangles and myriad other shapes in the sky.
Michael Atiyah’s Imaginative State of Mind
At 86, Britain’s preeminent mathematical matchmaker is still tackling the big questions and dreaming of a union between the quantum and the gravitational forces.
Quantum Weirdness Now a Matter of Time
Bizarre quantum bonds connect distinct moments in time, suggesting that quantum links — not space-time — constitute the fundamental structure of the universe.